


Til the World Ends

by moonlightnightmare



Series: World So Cold (The Evolution of a Pseudovillain) [1]
Category: Borderlands
Genre: (and of course I wanted to explore Jack's story because he is my psychotic son), Angel's birth, Can't wait to show you guys the world of my headcanons, F/M, For now the rating sits for death and other Hyperion shenanigans, His waifu, It's my first fanfic for the fandom, LEt's see more of that good shit right there, Might have smut later on depending on my mood, Multi, Start of a series that will include the start of Jack's story, What we didn't see in the games, Ya know all the stuff that made him human, Yuuuuuup, cause it's beautiful and i hope you like it
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-27
Updated: 2017-06-27
Packaged: 2018-11-19 18:11:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,044
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11318865
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/moonlightnightmare/pseuds/moonlightnightmare
Summary: Meet Jack Nichols. Just your average Hyperion lackey, trying to work his way up to bigger better things. And the beautiful little Cafe owner who became the woman who shaped the man we know today.{Sometimes the bad guys, aren't as bad as you think.}





	Til the World Ends

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is a character study into my perception of Handsome Jack as a character, and will explore defining moments of his life that influenced his decisions in canon. In the first part of this series, Jack is 25. And there will be more parts to explore other defining relationships in his life. I hope you guys enjoy this, as much as I will enjoy writing it.

Now I don’t believe men are born to be killers  
I don’t believe that this world can’t be saved.  
How did you get here and when did it start.  
An innocent child with a thorn in his heart.  
-World So Cold (12 Stones)  
Jack’s EchoJournal #1

They say a lot of sappy bullshit when it comes to love. Sappy. Pathetic. Bullshit. Bullshit meant for idiots who have come to believe that there is some level on which a person can actually care for another to the point that it’s like they’re a part of them. Sounds like bullshit to me. 

In short. Love is a sham. A fallacy, created by the screwed up asswad known as the human mind, to make us believe that somewhere out there, there is someone who could actually willingly give a flying shit about us and our wellbeing as people. 

And even if love is a legitimate thing, how is a person who’s never known it supposed to know what it feels like? No one ever loved me. I’ve just settled for the shitty inevitability that I will, one day, die alone. 

That’s usually the outcome for those of us mediocre assholes who dare to consider ourselves heroes, is it not? Not to mention it’s the outcome for those who are just genuinely unloved people. 

Oh hey! Whoopdy-fucking-do! I just hit the goddamn lottery. I’m both. 

Or I was. 

But that’s the funny thing, isn’t it? Fate is a funny and fickle bitch, and I really wish she’d make up her goddamn mind what’s supposed to happen to me already. 

All I could say for sure, was the first time I laid eyes on her, I felt like I’d just walked into a fucking romance novel. Right down to the pulse pounding, and the head reeling bullshit that was often described. 

I didn’t love her. But god-fucking-damn did I want her more than I’d ever wanted anything.

\--------------------------

She’d walked past him, in a steady flourish of movement. Her footsteps carried purpose. Her frame screamed that she was a woman on a mission. And as she’d passed, he’d been hit with the scent of a garden, as if one bloomed beneath her skin. His attention turned to one of his coworker’s whose name he’d never bothered to memorize. 

“Who the hell is that?”  
“Don’t ask me. I couldn’t tell you. Not our department that’s for sure.”

Heterochromatic eyes passed over the guy. “Some help you are.”

There was an edge to his tone, something that said he wasn’t exactly thrilled by the idea that his co-worker didn’t know who that woman was. But he’d been quick to reign in his anger, before it got out of hand over something ridiculously petty. Even though, he definitely could’ve killed the asswipe, and taken his position. That seemed to be the only way to advance in Hyperion anymore. Hell he’d been there for two years and was still working the same shitty fucking job. 

“I think she’s from accounting. She looks like she’d be from accounting.”

Well, at least it was enough to give him a lead. Some way to figure out which part of this hell hole she worked in. He picked up the remaining bits of his lunch, rising from his chair. 

“Where the hell are you going, man?”

He scoffed, as if it was the most obvious answer in the world. “I’m going to get her name.”

The woman stopped, at another table in the community lunch room, setting a bag of food in front of an older gentleman. A man almost everyone knew, he was head of the accounting department. Victor St. James. Then it dawned on him, Ol’ Vic liked to talk about his pretty little girl all the time. As it turned out she wasn’t so little. And he could see why the older man bragged. 

He took the remains of his lunch and trashed them, didn’t seem like he was going to be finishing it anyway. And then he waited, politely, like a goddamn gentleman for the young lady to finish bringing her dad his lunch. 

It was only a few more minutes, before she’d started back from once she came, headed in a head on collision path towards him. Perfect. And as if fate seemed to decree that it was the perfect moment for everything to come together. The woman tripped on the heel of her shoe and right into the arms of the ever charming Jack in front of her. 

“You know, you should really watch your step. I won’t always be here to catch you when you fall.” It was meant to be a pick up line. Or some semblance of one maybe. He didn’t know how to do charm like most guys did. It didn’t come second nature to him. However it was common knowledge that if his arms weren’t currently wrapped around her, she’d have bit the floor pretty damn hard. And he wasn’t about to have any of that. 

“You know if that was supposed to be charming, you failed.”

“Ouch.” He straightened her up, and faked like he’d been shot straight in the chest, hands resting over his heart as if he’d been severely wounded. “Though, I do like honesty. I’m Jack. Where ya headed? I’ll walk with you.”

“April. And thanks, but no thanks. I think I’ve got it all under control, “ She reached up and gave him the slightest boop on the nose, causing his nose to wrinkle and his eyes to cross to follow her finger, “Handsome. I’ll see ya around.”

And then like she’d never been there in the first place. The beauty was gone, only the ghost of her sunset colored hair left to occupy his thoughts. 

“Oh man! Jack, I can’t believe you did that!” Grayson, Jack’s best friend -and roommate- since he’d started working for this shithole company had plopped down at his lunch table, “You know who she is right?”

Jack looked at the man who had spoken between bites of food, and shook his head. “Untouchable. Yeah. I know. But God do I want her.”

With a raised fork, salad skewered on it’s prongs, Alyssa, Grayson’s girlfriend spoke up. “Want in one hand, and shit in the other, my man.”


End file.
